Is Cardio Necessary When Trying to Lose Weight?

When people try to lose weight, the first thing they think of doing is cardio. Many of those never try doing anything else, but just go to gym because of treadmill. Also, some of those don’t ever track their nutrition and expect weight to just melt off.

Your weight loss or gain depends completely on your daily calorie intake. As I said many times before – If you eat more than you burn you are going to gain weight, and if you eat less you are going to lose weight. What cardio does is help you burn more calories throughout the day, but many people use “I do cardio” as an excuse to eat whatever they want for the rest of the day. You can run for a half an hour and burn, let’s say, 300 calories. If you eat few Oreo cookies after that, you are going to get all the calories back.

Cardio does have many health benefits and is definitely good for you. It can help with weight loss, by increasing your energy expenditure. In other words, it will help you burn a few extra calories but it definitely won’t help you burn fat if you’re not in a calorie deficit. Therefore, focus on tracking of your nutrition, and do try to incorporate some weight training as well. It will also help you with –burning calories, but you are also going to build some muscle.